Amazing Facts About Silver

In today’s world when we want to purchase something, we just fish into our pocket, pull out notes that match up to the value of what we want and pay but there was a time when the Dollar, the Pound or the Indian rupee didn’t exist in its current form. Silver can be traced back to 1200 BC in Greece where it was mined and used to fund the various empires of the day. Back in the day, during the Athenian empire, silver was used as a currency for trading and can be considered the first instance of silver acquiring the status of an international standard. The initial instances of large scale production of silver can be traced back to the Spanish conquests of South America which made Mexico and Peru produce 85% of the world’s silver between the 1500’s and the 1800’s. These two countries no longer produce that much of the world’s silver but are still the largest producers of silver today. If that has interested you then here are some more interesting facts about silver:

The three countries that produce the largest amount of silver are Mexico (produced 192 million ounces in 2014), Peru (produced 121 million ounces in 2014) and China ((produced 114 million ounces in 2014). India produces only about 10 million ounces of silver annually.

India is the largest consumer of the world’s silver and can consume as much as one third of all the silver produced around the world in one year.

The biggest demand for silver is actually generated by the industrial sectors where silver is used in the production of solar power units, chemicals and even photography. This demand can account for up to 56% of the world's need for silver.

It is believed that for a brief period, in Egypt, silver was actually considered more valuable than gold.

In 1979 the price of silver reached its all-time high of USD 49.45 per troy ounce. This was a jump of over 700% in a single day and was caused by the Hunt brothers’ attempt to corner the market.

This also led to what is known as “silver Thursday”. March 27, 1980, when the price of silver fell by over 50% in a single day.

At their peak, it is believed that the Hunt brothers owned at least one third of the world’s silver.

Silver prices in the markets are also affected by the demand for copper because one of the forms of silver is sterling silver which is 95.5% sliver and the remainder other elements including copper.

The Olympic gold medal is actually silver coated in gold.

For the longest time silver was referred to as the poor man’s gold because it was the precious metal most could afford. But around 2014 it lost that status due to the drop in prices caused by a slowdown in China’s industrial sector. It may yet regain that status.